Press Release · 31 | 01 | 2023

Newly created appointment committee will seek a successor to Marco Solari

At a meeting yesterday, Monday 30th January, presided over by Marco Solari, the Board of Directors of the Locarno Film Festival approved the report drawn up by the working group on the future governance of the Festival. The working group was tasked with assessing possible changes, with a view to addressing the multiple challenges facing the event in the future. The Board members also set up an appointment committee with a brief to identify possible candidates for the presidency, following the end of Marco Solari’s tenure in April 2024. The committee will be headed by Mario Timbal, director of Swiss public broadcaster RSI.

Last October a working group – comprising Nadia Dresti, Felix Ehrat, Edna Epelbaum, Josefa Haas, Markus Hongler, Pius Knüsel, Francesco Lurati, Michel Merkt, Giovanni Merlini (coordinator) and Mariateresa Vacalli – was set up by the Board of Directors to study the event’s current governance and devise proposals aimed at ensuring the Festival’s continued success. Marco Solari expressed his “gratitude to the group for their excellent work, which provides a firm starting point for optimizing the potential future growth of this international Festival, which is so important for Ticino and for Switzerland.”
The upcoming phase will now include a revision of the Festival’s Articles of Association. An initial progress report on this aspect is planned for the next AGM in April 2023.

At yesterday’s meeting, the Board of Directors also approved a proposal from the Festival’s Executive Board to set up an appointment committee, whose members are Mario Timbal (previously Managing Director of the Locarno Film Festival and now the director of the Swiss public broadcaster RSI), Edna Epelbaum (film industry Entrepreneur and President of the Swiss Cinema Association) and Francesco Lurati (Professor of Corporate Communication at USI Università della Svizzera italiana). The committee’s brief will be to present to the Board of Directors the names of possible candidates to succeed President Marco Solari, who will not be seeking a further term in office at the 2024 spring AGM.